Tessa Jowell MP Announces She is Set to Run for London Mayor

Labour MP says she will formally announce her Mayoral bid after the general election

By Staff Reporter

November 22, 2014 16:58 GMT

Dame Tessa Jowell MP says she will formally announce her bid for Mayor of London after the 2015 general election(Reuters)

Labour's MP Dame Tessa Jowell has announced that she is planning to run for Mayor of London in the capital's next election for the role in 2016.

Dame Jowell – Labour's former culture secretary of state for culture, media and sport, and minister for the Olympics and shadow minister for London – told the BBC she was "certainly planning to run" to become Labour's candidate to replace Boris Johnson in 2016.

But Jowell said she planned to delay officially announcing her candidacy until the general election in 2015.

The Labour MP for Dulwich and West Norwood said that she wanted to have "a very clear set of policies", before she made a formal announcement.

The Dulwich and West Norwood MP said now "isn't a time for formal declaration", but that she is "certainly working on a bid to be London mayor".

Jowell said she was "working on policy answers to what are the big questions facing London," but before her official announcement would be "helping Labour MPs and candidates in marginal constituencies to win their seats".

Labour has announced it will appoint their mayoral candidate by inviting their supporters to pay £3 to take part in a run-off, with the MP with the most forwards being nominated as Labour candidate.

David Lammy and Christian Wolmar have formally announced they plan to seek Labour's candidacy to become London mayor.

Other Labour figures including Dianne Abbott, Margaret Hodge and Sadiq Khan have also been touted as potential candidates.